Where o’ where is our trust and faith?

As a small boy I trusted my mother and father without questioning. I was taught to trust my brother and sister. In school I trusted my teachers to teach me. As I grew older I learned to trust friends. In marriage I trusted my spouse. At work I tried to trust my fellow employees. I hope some people also did trust me.

As I matured I experienced people who broke their trust to me. When the anger and disappointment settled, I tried to understand why. So it went. For most of my adult life, I stumbled along not really understanding what trustworthiness really means. But as I consider the social mess we are in today, let’s discuss this most important word to seek its true meaning.

We will notice that the word “faith” creeps up. Trust and faith are inseparable. Somewhere along the road to a better society, we have lost trust and faith in others and, sadly too often, in ourselves.

Trust is both an emotional and a logical act. Emotionally, we expose our vulnerabilities to people. But we believe that they will not take advantage of our openness. Logically, we assess the possibility of gain or loss and conclude that the person in question will behave in a predicable manner. In practice, trust is a bit of both. I trust you because I have experienced your trustworthiness and because I have faith in human nature.

We feel trust. Emotions associated with trust include companionship, friendship, love, agreement, relaxation and comfort. Trust means being able to predict what other people will do and what situations will occur.

If we surround ourselves with people we trust, then we can create a safe present and an even better future. We find that trustworthy people are reliable and responsible.

Trust also involves a value exchange. Most of what we do with other people is based around exchange, which is the basis for all businesses as well as simple relationships. For example, a parent exchanges attention for love. A company exchanges not only pay but good working conditions for intellectual and manual effort for our work.

In other words, trust means making an exchange with someone when we do not have full knowledge about them, their intent and the things they are offering us. Consider all the promises we hear at election time from candidates mouthing off on all the benefits they will be showering upon us the gullible voter when they are elected. Do you begin to see where we are headed in this discussion? Trust! Faith! How much do we still possess? Where are they?

Let’s ask ourselves several questions. The answers will be personal. Do we trust our fellow employees? How much? Do we trust our leaders? How much? Do we trust the direction in which we are being led? How much? Who do we trust is telling us the truth? Can we trust what we are daily told by our leaders? How much?

How did we become so bankrupt? Was it done overnight or over a period of time? Has our belief in our political system of democracy

eroded? Why do we have little trust in the utility company that is fast destroying all economic activity? What happened to the trust in the Retirement Fund? Has our trust and faith in our ability to rebuild our economic system vanished? Is there anyone in our society in whom we feel we can place our trust and faith to help us? Please ask ourselves these questions and think hard on our answers.

I could cite many cases of blatant abuse of our trust. We have been betrayed and yet we sit silently and allow it to continue. No, I am not pointing fingers at anyone. I am to blame as much as anyone for allowing our loss of trust to happen. But by asking us to answer the above questions, I hope to stimulate us to wake up and begin taking control of our society and lead us back to sanity.

Repeatedly I keep saying that we have great possibilities and opportunities to help ourselves. However we have become lethargic, almost senseless, feeling no pain. We have lost trust in our capabilities.

We keep touting tourism as our major industry. Yet we do little to develop the reasons why tourists should come here. We do little to beatify and clean our tourist sites. Do we feel joy when we see a group of civic minded citizens collect hundreds of pounds of trash? Why do so many of our citizens insist on spilling their trash in our lovely parks and in our streets? If our streets are full of trash, how much trash is in our government houses?

Where is the faith that we can produce great amounts of food products to sell to our neighbors? Don’t we trust ourselves that we can do it? Why do we keep asking for outside help without first trying to help ourselves? We are full of bountiful opportunities. Why aren’t we helping ourselves more? Do we lack the trust and faith in our citizens and ourselves to create them?

Do I sound frustrated? Yes, I am. That is why I am pleading to all of us—let us screw up trust and faith in ourselves and in one another and begin to create the life we desire. In my life span, I have seen villages and countries rejuvenate themselves even under worse conditions that we are experiencing now.

When we begin to ask questions on how we can help our society and less on how we can help ourselves—this is the first step. We must create a political band of brothers and sisters. We need to come together, not splintered as political parties growling for power. We need teammates and surrogates. It’s about establishing a common effort with proven people of trust. We need to establish bonds of trust and faith in our future.

Our dilemma happened over a period of time and under several leaderships, but who will turn it around and bring back the trust that has been lost during this period? Who is willing to risk his all to fix the dilemma we are mired in? Who will step forward and convince us to follow him? Is there a leader just waiting to lead?

Read what former President Kennedy said in a speech delivered at the American University in 1963:

“Our problems are man-made; therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable—and we believe they can do it again.”

What is missing now is a spirit of adventure, of common purpose, a positive feeling, even romance about the times for meeting our challenges in our society, a stirring local cadence, a sense of mission. We must stop the feeling of defeat. We must begin to trust and have faith both in our fellow man and in ourselves. We did once before. And we can do so again. We must learn from our mistakes.

As long as we remain afraid and complacent, we will remain where we are. As long as we do not trust and have faith, we will remain where we are. We—you and I—are responsible for where we are today. Believe it or not, we tolerate our present situation. Once we accept these remarks and accept the fact as President Kennedy said: “ No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable.” Once we believe this, we can do it again!

Let us join together and create the fires needed to forge trust and faith. At least think about my thoughts as you go about your chores. But remember to SMILE!!! Make the other person smile too. A big smile is contagious.